Blog

Posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2015

A new website unveiled by The Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) provides unprecedented estimates of the vital rates of over 150 species of North American landbirds and will significantly improve strategies for reversing the population declines that are occurring in many of these species. Vital Rates of North American Landbirds provides estimates of the annual rates of survival, reproduction, recruitment, and population change for each of the 150 species. The data is based on analyses of hundreds of thousands of bird banding and recapture records collected over a 15-year (1992-2006) period across the U.S. and southern Canada by the Monitoring Avian
Read More

Comments Off on New Insights into Demographic Causes of Bird Population Declines

Posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2015

One species that enjoys the West Virginia Appalachian environment for breeding is the golden-winged warbler, but habitat has been hard to find. There was great excitement when Idun Guenther, a wildlife biologist with the state’s Department of Natural Resources, spotted two golden-winged warbler males on the private property of Julia and Estil Hughes. The Hughes partnered with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on a landscape initiative called Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW). Through NRCS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, habitat for a variety of species on privately owned land is restored. “Collaborating with partner agencies is an excellent way
Read More

Comments Off on Through Partnerships, Golden-Winged Warbler Thrives

Posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2015

The Appalachian Region is known for its extensive tracts of mature hardwood forest and high biodiversity, including that of songbirds. The region is a stronghold for the cerulean warbler, containing about 75 percent of the population. The West Virginia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, in collaboration with the Cerulean Warbler Technical Group, National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture (AMJV), and researchers and managers from universities, state agencies, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and private landowners in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, recently completed
Read More

Comments Off on Cerulean Warbler Habitat Management

Researchers Seek a Sneak Peek Into the Future of Forests

Posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2015 by aadmin

In May 2015, scores of scientists from dozens of research institutions descended on a patch of forest in central North Carolina, taking samples of everything from ants and mites to other microbes – samples they hope will offer a glimpse into the future of forest ecosystems. This flurry of data collection represents the largest and most robust warming experiment conducted in a forest ecosystem. The project is supported by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of the Interior’s Southeast Climate Science Center, based at North Carolina State University (NCSU). The heart of the experiment is a collection of so-called
Read More

Comments Off on Researchers Seek a Sneak Peek Into the Future of Forests

Posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2015

It was a scene that warmed many hearts. A bald eagle incubating two eggs in a falling snow, unwilling to budge as the nest turned white. As the flakes piled high, the bird was blanketed. Only its head could been seen, periscoping above the snow. The images captured in early March on the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Eagle Cam spotlighted the sacrifices parents make, and showed a lot about the resilience of bald eagles, and why they have been so successful in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. And as the Game Commission releases its annual mid-year report on bald-eagle nests statewide, the preliminary
Read More

Comments Off on Pennsylvania Reports Record Number of Bald Eagle Nests

Posted on Monday, July 6th, 2015

In 2004, Partners in Flight produced the North American Landbird Conservation Plan, providing a continental synthesis of the priorities and tasks to guide landbird conservation to protect remaining populations and reverse long-term population declines. In 2015, natural resource and conservation partners – including the AMJV – are coming together to update this landmark plan, which will include revisions to both the methodology and resulting vulnerability scores of Species Assessment as well as publication of new and innovative products. Since the majority of the AMJV’s priority species are landbirds, the revision of this Plan will be a cornerstone to the ongoing AMJV
Read More

Comments Off on AMJV Supporting Update of Partners in Flight Plan